A dark room. A single spotlight, focused on a dissecting slab. A body draped with a white tarp lies on the slab, cold and still. Around the slab are a number of trolleys, most piled with bottles of strange, gurgling liquids, with tubes leading from one bottle to another. One trolley, however, had hanging from it a frightening assortment of knives, clamps, forceps, saws, scissors and scalpels, most of them still stained with blood.

It was from this trolley that the Professor selected a tool that would be suitable for the gruesome task ahead. He turned to the others in the room – two assisting Doctors, and his personal Clerk who would be recording their progress. He gestured to the Doctors, and like synchronized clockwork they made for the head of the slab, one standing on either side and began to roll down the white cloth, uncovering the unmoving form that lay beneath.

Looking at the motionless form in front of him, the Professor grimaced at thought of the task disgusting task that lay ahead of him – surely a man of his position deserved better than to be saddled with this! Nevertheless, he had a job to do so he might as well get the whole filthy process over and done with. Sneering, he lowered the scalpel he’d selected earlier into the fleshly abdomen of the Subject, and blood began to seep from the wound…

Suddenly, the subject’s chest swelled with a spasmodic gasp, with such violence that the Professor recoiled with alarm, dropping the scalpel which hit the tiled floor with a harsh clatter. The Clerk, the two Doctors and the Professor watched in dumb horror as the pale form of their Subject wrenched itself into an upright position on the table; then, with supernatural speed its forelimb flashed out and gripped the Professor’s working hand, so tightly and viciously that it made the Professor wheeze with pain. The Subject gave a few sharp jerks, and there was the sickening crack of bone, accompanied by the Professor howling like a wild beast…